Costello Inc. engineers Stephen Wilcox and Ralph Saldana briefed the Katy City Council and residents of the Pine Forest subdivision on recommended drainage improvements for the neighborhood Tuesday evening. The proposed drainage improvements, which Wilcox and Saldana said would help all city residents by redirecting water out of the city more efficiently, would cost about $3.3 million. This information session came two weeks after Costello Inc. presented an overview of flood study findings related to the 2016 Tax Day Floods. Katy Mayor Chuck Brawner said the city was considering a bond election, which would be voted on this coming May, to raise the money. The bond is expected to be on the city council's agenda this coming Monday, Nov. 13. Wilcox and Saldana said the improvements would mostly affect Pine Forest subdivision, which is near the intersection of Avenue D and Morton Road, but would have a trickle-down effect for the city of Katy. The highest recommendations proposed by Wilcox and Saldana were improvements to the ditch along Magnolia Drive, the ditch and culverts along Red Bud Street Lane and increasing pipe diameters for the storm sewer under Avenue D. The Magnolia Drive improvements would include lining the ditch with concrete, installing flap gates as needed and making the ditch deeper. “In drainage, depth is king, so as much depth as you can provide allows you to do improvements [while] minimizing your costs as much as possible,” Wilcox said. Other specific drainage improvements include new, larger culverts throughout the community, ditch improvements to increase depth and line them with cement, increasing pipe capacity along Avenue D, a new 42 inch diameter drainage pipe parallel to Hackberry Lane behind the homes there along the gas line easement, the installation of multiple flap gates which prevent water from going back upstream if it runs into an obstacle and improved drainage intake boxes on Elm Circle north of Morton Road. Wilcox and Saldana said the primary challenges for the improvements besides funding were limited easements where the city can build improvements and underground obstacles, such as communications lines and existing gas pipelines. In response to resident comments about ditches not being maintained by the city and asking for the ditches and culverts to be cleaned out immediately, Wilcox said the priority for the city should first be establishing the larger projects those drainage tools flow into. “It’s kind of the analogy, if you’re driving down a highway and it’s stacked, and you only improve what you’re driving on to maybe six lanes instead of two, but downstream you’ve still only got two, where’s it going to go?," he said.  "You’re still stuck in traffic.” Brawner said the city is working to clear out existing drainage infrastructure using the city’s new Gradall machine as well as the old ditch clearing machine which the city kept. The city plans to work on these projects and clearing out existing ditches and culverts simultaneously, Brawner said. Several residents spoke during the open comments portion of the briefing and supported the proposed changes. No residents spoke against the proposed improvements.